The Hollywood Hell

As only Mamet can portray it

In 1896, William Selig founded the first film studio in Hollywood, then a sleepy farming town, to escape Thomas Edisons eastern cartel. From then on, Hollywood churned out product. Film was a commodity, seldom art - and even less today.

Speed-the-Plow, a play by David Mamet, concerns an aesthete and a profiteer in a Hollywood office. Both mid-level execs, theyre debating whether to take an inane blockbuster over an adaptation of an apocalyptic novel. When they throw their secretary into the argument, Hollywood shows its true face as a degenerate slum. In Mamets own words, Speed-the-Plow is about work and the end of the world. Its having its southeastern premiere at the Gable Stage (1200 Anastasia Ave, Coral Gables) in the Biltmore Hotel, a building that radiates the noir glamour of 1930s Hollywood. Speed-the-Plow opens 8 p.m. on August 15 and runs till September 13. Tickets cost $42.50 or less. Call 305-446-1116, or visit gablestage.org.
Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Starts: Aug. 15. Continues through Sept. 13, 2009